Hey Gams!When is the last time I told you; “You are wonderful, full of wonder”?Where do you find these wonderful sites?Why is it that every time I watch such beauty I must have a box of Kleenex handy?Yes, yes. I know. I’m an old fool. I just recently saw Anush at the Yerevan Opera House, and I had to leave the hall several times, just s I did some ten years ago because I did not have enough Kleenexes in my pocket.The most beautiful of the whole thing are those those beautiful boys and girls, and the music is played with traditional Armenian instruments like duduk, zurna and dhol. No Zilji-oglu cymbals, no Yamaha keyboards….and so on. Some time ago I was deeply embroiled in debates of what traditional Armenian Music and Dance is. The debate was about advertising “Armenian Nights“ emphasizing “belly dancing”. Can you see any bellies in the above tapes? Do you see any more than those “big Armenian noses” , (don’t shoot me, it's a joke), or past the tips of their fingers?How beautiful!!!And…. One of the tapes features Kochari. Where is Robert Kochar(ian)? Is that the same dance our troops performed at the Brandenburg Gate in may of 1945??

this "sivas aghchig halay" is very similar to the second version of the "sepastatsi bar". its fitting that its called "aghchig halay" because i always thought the subtle foot movements were more suited to women, although where im from all ages and sexes do this dance.

I'm not referring to the music, but to the steps. The music played by this fellow on the kemanche is certainly the melody of Sepastia Bar, not whatever this thing is the turks are playing on davoul zourna. I'm merely pointing out that the steps reffered to by the Turks in the video as "ahcik halay" are similar to one of the dances we do for Sepastia Bar (which they clearly stole from us, as seen by the fact that they call it "ahcik (aghchig) halay".) If you watch the "Bijo Bar" video, and wait until the guy starts counting "one two three" you will see that they start doing a step similar to the one in the Turkish video. of course they are not exactly the same, but thats bc the Turks can't do it right

Thanks for those videos though, I guess the dance I am talking about is actually a form of "Bijo Bar", which would explain why in my community we have two completely different dances that are both called "sepastia bar" - one is actually this so called "bijo bar", and one is the "original sepastia bar" (i knew from my aunt that the one similar to this "bijo bar" is not the "real one" but she didn't explain to me anything else)

the "real" sepastia bar, which is supposed to go to the music the kemanche man is playing, is quite different.

By the way I love that "govduntsi" video. That's probably my favorite video on all of youtube, I was actually about to post it to this topic myself. thats not the "sepastatsi bar" though, but more of a sepastatsi version of the halleh (kochari).

Given the instrument, the melody sounds Pontic. Yet as we know, the hamshen have preserved traces of the Armenian past that are found among no other community.

They may have preserved traces found in "no other community", but this melody isn't one of them. This melody of Sepastia Bar has been preserved in the Armenian-American community for the past 90 years. (the accompanying dance has been preserved too - see my other comments)

Given the instrument, the melody sounds Pontic. Yet as we know, the hamshen have preserved traces of the Armenian past that are found among no other community.

I'm not even gonna get into the origins of any of the dances/music, since I simply do not know. But I did want to comment on the Hamshen people...I saw an interview once with some of them, in their local environment...it provoked the strangest feelings in me. I mean, here are Armenians, speaking Armenian, knowing they are Armenian, knowing their history....and yet they are Muslim... darorinag...